News

Ithaca College Theatre To Present Six-Show Season In Renovated Building

ITHACA, NY — Built in 1969, Ithaca College’s Dillingham Center will undergo a major renovation this summer that will ultimately benefit students and patrons alike. The new Dillingham will feature a refurbished lobby, elevators, updated classrooms and studios and a new rehearsal space the size of the Hoerner Theatre stage.

Subscriptions to the 2009–10 Ithaca College Theatre season include tickets to five productions and are available for as little as $25. Call (607) 274-3224 to inquire about subscribing or for tickets to any of our productions. Help celebrate the new Dillingham and enjoy terrific performances!

The first production in the renovated building will be British playwright Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls.” When Marlene throws a dinner party to celebrate her promotion at the “Top Girls” employment agency, she invites, in a dreamlike opening sequence, Pope Joan, Dull Gret from Pieter Breughel’s painting, 19th century explorer Isabella Bird, and other characters from history and art to swap stories about surviving in a man’s world. The stories of the historical characters parallel the lives of the modern characters in the play. Moving through Marlene’s tangled career and family relationships, we see that she has learned to be tough and insensitive in order to compete with men.

Inspired by the Book of Genesis, the fall musical “Children of Eden” uses Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and Noah and the flood to shed new light on universal stories of love, hope, parents and children. Composer Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked,” “Godspell”) brings musical life to familiar characters as they struggle to raise families and do what’s right in a complex and conflicted world.

Next, we will surprise you with a great production featuring our talented student performers and designers. This production is not included in season subscription packages.

The annual collaboration between the Department of Theatre Arts and the School of Music will be a production of Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman’ s “The Little Prince.” This popular opera is based on the beloved 1943 book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and the tiny explorer from Astroid B612. Children will enjoy this production, but adults will never forget the message summarized by the fox, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

The spring musical, “Floyd Collins,” is based on a true story and takes us to rural Kentucky in 1925, where a local cave explorer seeks to fulfill his dream of discovering a tourist attraction. When he becomes trapped in Sand Cave and a rescue is attempted, Floyd and his community are catapulted into the public eye as a nationwide media circus descends. Composer/lyricist Adam Guettel merges musical theater style with folk and bluegrass, contrasting the unadorned lives of the Collins family with the brash intrusion of the world that suddenly envelops them.

Shakespeare invented the genre of screwball comedy (complete with witty lovers who cannot live with or without each other) and the season’s final production, “Much Ado about Nothing,” is filled with some of his most memorable comic characters. Young lovers Hero and Claudio, soon to be married, set a “lover’s trap” for Benedick, a confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favorite sparring partner. Complications arise when Don Pedro’s evil brother convinces the groom that the bride has been unfaithful. The lovers eventually unite in this play about eavesdropping, deception and forgiveness.